44 
O T A H 
headed only with ftone, and none of them pointed. 
They have targets of a femicircular form, made of wicker 
work, and plaited firings of the cocoa-nut fibres, covered 
with glofly bluifh-green feathers belonging to a kind of 
pigeon, and ornamented with (bark's teeth, arranged in 
three concentric circles. 
Their boats or canoes are of three different forts. Some 
are made out of a (ingle tree, and hold from two to fix 
men: thefe are principally employed in fifiiing. Others 
are conftruffed of planks very dexteroufly fewed together; 
they are of different fizes, and will hold from ten to forty 
men : they generally lafii two of thefe together, and fet up 
two mails between them; or, if they are fingle, they have 
an on-trigger on one fide, and only one malt in the middle ; 
and in thefe vefiels they will fail far beyond the fight of 
land. The third fortfeems to be principally defigned for 
pleafure or (how. Thefe are very large, but have no fail; 
and in fhape referable the gondolas of Venice. The mid¬ 
dle is covered with a large awning; and fome of the 
people fit upon it, and fome under it. The plank of 
which thefe vefiels are conftrufled, is made by fplittinga 
tree, with the grain, into as many thin pieces as pofllble. 
The boards are brought to the thicknefs of about an inch, 
and are afterwards fitted to the boat with the fame exafl- 
nefs that might be expefted from an expert joiner. To 
fallen thefe planks together, holes are bored with apiece 
of bone, fixed into a (lick for that purpofe. Through 
thefe holes a kind of plaited cordage is palled, fo as to 
hold the planks ftrongly together. The feams are caulked 
with dry rulhes; and the whole outfide of the vefi’el is 
painted over with a kind of gummy juice, which fup- 
plies the place of pitch. 
Upon a fecond vilit to this ifland, in May 1774, Capt. 
Cook found that a very confiderable number of canoes 
had been conltru&ed in the courfe of eight months. The 
number of war-canoes raifed and equipped by the whole 
ifland amounted to 1720, manned by 68,000 able men, 
allowing forty to each canoe; and, as thefe cannot 
amount to above one-third part of the number of both 
(exes, children included, the whole ifland could not, he 
thought, contain lefs than 204,000 inhabitants. 
In connexion with their navigation, we may mention 
their wonderful fagacity in foretelling the weather, at 
lead the quarter from which the wind (hall blow at any 
future time. In their longer voyages, they fleer by the fun 
in the day, and in the night by the liars; all which they 
diftinguifh feparately by names, and know irt what part of 
the heavens they will appear in any of the months during 
which they are vilible in their horizon ; they alfo know 
the time of their annual appearing and difappearing with 
more precifion than will eafily be believed by an Euro¬ 
pean afironomer. In fpeaking of time, either pall or fu¬ 
ture, they never ufed any term but Malama, which figni- 
fies moon ; of thefe moons they count thirteen, and then 
begin again, fo that they have a notion of the lolar year: 
each month, they fay, has twenty-nine days, including 
one in which the moon is not vilible. They diftinguifli 
them by feparate names. Every day is fubdivided into 
twelve parts, each of two hours, of which fix belong to 
the day, and fix to the night. In numeration they pro¬ 
ceed from 1 to 10, the number of fingers on both 
hands ; and, though they have for each number a different 
name, they generally take hold of their fingers one by 
one, drifting from one hand to the other till they come to 
the number they want to exprefs. In counting from 10, 
they repeat the name of that number, and add the word 
more; ten and one more, is eleven, &c. When they 
come to to and 10 more, they have a new denomination, 
as we fay a fcore; and by thele fcores they count till they 
get ten of them, when they have a denomination for 200 ; 
but they did not l'eem to have any denomination for ex- 
prelfing a greater number. In fpeaking of diftance from 
place to place, they exprefs it, like the Afiatics, by the 
time that is required to pafs it. 
As to their manners and habits, their propenfity to 
E I T E. 
theft is very great, infomuch that M. Bopgainville fays, 
“ even in Europe itfelf one cannot fee more expert filch- 
ers than the people of this country;” and indeed, in 
all the voyages made by Cook and others, they had abun¬ 
dant experience of this difpofition of the natives, which 
often produced quarrels, and fometimes even fatal ef¬ 
fects. In their behaviour they are faid to be extremely 
lafcivious, almoft beyond credibility. A lady of diftinc- 
tion who vifited Mr. Banks, ufed the following ceremony 
on her firft approach to the llranger. After laying down 
feveral young plantain-leaves, a man brought a large 
bundle of cloth ; which having opened, he fpreadit piece 
by piece on the ground, in the fpace between Mr. Banks 
and his vifitants. Therewere in all nine pieces : having 
fpread three pieces one upon another, the lady came for¬ 
ward, and, llepping upon them, took up her garments 
all around her to her waift; (lie then turned three times 
round, after which Ihe dropped the veil: when other 
three pieces were fpread, Ihe.praftifed the fame ceremony ; 
and fo the third time, when the laft three pieces were laid 
out; after which the cloth was again rolled up, and deli¬ 
vered to Mr. Banks as a prefent from the lady, who, with 
her attending friend, came up and faluted him. From the 
unbridled licentioufnefs of thefe people, the French gave 
this ifland the name of the New Cythera. Yet Capt. Cook 
fays that the women of Otaheite, and of the Society Ifles 
in general, have been calumniated by thofe who reprefent 
them, without exception, as ready to grant the laft fa¬ 
vour to any man that will come up to their price. This, 
he fays, is by no means the cafe; the favours of married 
women, and alfo of the unmarried of the better fort, are 
obtained with as much difficulty here as in any other 
country ; neither can the charge be underllood indifcri- 
minately of the unmarried of the lowerclafs, for many of 
thefe admit of no fuch familiarities. There are, how¬ 
ever, proftitutes here, as well as in other countries, and 
perhaps more in proportion: but, according to the 
more recent miffionary-accounts, there is no public ap¬ 
pearance of immodelly ; and they impute thofe noted ex¬ 
hibitions to the bribes of their Englifli vifitors. 
Their voice and fpeech are foftand harmonious ; and 
their dialed! is the Italian of the Pacific Ocean. It 
abounds with vowels, and the pronunciation of it is ea¬ 
fily acquired : but it was found exceffively difficult to 
teach the natives to pronounce Englifli words ; but Spa- 
nidi and Italian words, if ending in a vowel, they pro¬ 
nounced with the greateft eafe. They called Capt. Cook 
Toote; Mr. Hicks, the firft lieutenant, Hete, See. and in 
this manner they formed names for almoft every man in 
the (hip. In fome, however, it was not eafy to find any 
traces of the original; and they were perhaps not mere 
arbitrary founds, formed upon the occafion, butfignified 
words in their own language ; and it feems that they 
could perfedlly remember thefe appellations at the dif¬ 
tance of four years, by their enquiries after fuch gentle¬ 
men as were abfent on the fecond voyage by name Mr. 
Monkhoufe, a midfiiipman, they called Matte, which in 
their language dignifies dead; becaufe he commanded a 
party that killed a man for Healing a mulket. 
The Otaheiteans are remarkable for cleanlinefs : both 
men and women conftantly wafli their whole bodies three 
times a-day in running water. They are moll expert 
fwimmers, being accuftomed to the water from their in¬ 
fancy. Capt. Cook relates the following remarkable in- 
liance of their expertnefs. On a part of the (hore where 
a tremendoufly high furf broke, infomuch that no Eu¬ 
ropean boat could live in it, and the bell European fwim- 
mer, he was perfuaded, would have been drowned, as the 
(hore was covered with pebbles and large Hones, yet here 
were ten or twelve Indians fwimming for their amufe- 
ment. Whenever a furf broke near them, they dived un¬ 
der it, and rofe again on the other fide. The Hern of an 
old canoe added much to their fport. This they took out 
before them, and fwam with it as far as the outermoft 
beach; when two or three getting into it, and turning 
4 the 
